Three time Olympic short-track speed skater Jon Eley has been selected as the Team GB Flagbearer for the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Olympics on Friday 7 February.
As the team aims for a record medal haul, a total of five Loughborough College names including BTEC Sport student Katie Summerhayes and former students Elise Christie, Jack Whelbourne, Charlotte Gilmartin and Jon Eley, will be representing Britain in the 22nd Winter Games.
Elise, the first British woman to win a World Championship medal in short-track skating, Jack, Charlotte and Jon – who all studied on the College’s AASE programme - are part of what performance director Stuart Horsepool is calling the country’s ‘strongest ever’ short-track skating team and join Katie, who will be competing in the new Olympic discipline of ski slopestyle, where athletes perform off rails, quarter-pipes and jumps.
Eighteen year old Katie won British female skiing’s first World Cup medal in 19 years in 2012 and arrives in Russia with a second career World Cup silver from Gstaad last month. The freestyle skiing slopestyle medal put earlier knee injury issues firmly behind her.
Before flying out to Sochi Katie revealed: “ The knee injury put a lot of pressure on me. It was a race against time. I got the times I needed to qualify but I didn’t know if I was going to be fit enough to be selected and go to the Winter Olympics.
“I was so happy to get the second silver last month and show people I am pretty alright at skiing – and then to hear I would be on Team GB … it’s indescribable.
“It’s good I will be getting out there a while before my competition day as it gives me time to eat lots, to rest and to hopefully to relax and enjoy the atmosphere a bit.
“I have the experience on the rails and jumps but it’s all about making it look original and really good on the day. I am nervous – but I am more excited.”
The Opening Ceremony begins at 16:14 GMT on Friday 7 February with the athlete’s parade taking place between 16:25 and 17:10.
Photo of Katie Summerhayes courtesy Nick Atkins